NOWY TARG

Pre-1939: Nowy Targ, town, Kraków województwo, Poland; 1939–1945: Neumarkt, Kreis center, Distrikt Krakau, Generalgouvernement; post-1998: Nowy Targ, województwo małopolskie, Poland Nowy Targ is located about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Kraków. In 1921, there were 1,342 Jews living in the town (16 percent of the total population). In 1939, on the eve of World War II, there were about 2,500 Jews living in Nowy Targ. German armed forces occupied Nowy Targ on September 1, 1939, the first day of the invasion, due to the town’s proximity to the Czech o slo vaki an border. A few Jews fled to Eastern Galicia ahead of the German advance. The Soviet authorities subsequently deported most of these Jews to Siberia after they occupied eastern Poland in mid-September. As soon as the Germans occupied Nowy Targ, they arrested 12 Jewish community leaders on the pretext that they had fired on German troops, then sent them to a concentration camp in Germany. Accompanying the German army were mo...